"The outside Is the Result of an inside": Some Sources of One of Modernism's Most Persistent Doctrines Author(s): Thomas L.

Schumacher Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 56, No. 1 (Sep., 2002), pp. 22-33 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
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L.CHUMACHER THOMAS
of Maryland University

"The

Outside
an

Is

the

Result

of
Some
Most

Inside"
Sources Persistent

of

One

of

Modernism's

Doctrines

for modernism One of the most pervasive doctrinesof composition was the necessary corresponandthe exterioras expressedin Le Corbusier's "Theoutsideis the dence betweenthe interior maxim, resultof an inside."ManyModern movement architects this maxim as requiring that both interpreted be expressedon the exteriorof their buildings. and "program" movement "space" AlthoughModern andtheoriststhemselveswrote little on this subject,a number architects of earlier writings, including some nineteenth-andtwentieth-century booksby traditionalists, revealthe academic rootsof these of these ideas. precepts.Thispapertracesthe development
Introduction
activitypurposeof a building,is distinguishable "Abuildingis like a soap bubble.... The fromfunctionas the fulfillment of environmental outside is the resultof an inside." and comfortrequirements (withwhich I am not Le Corbusier' concernedin the presentessay), which in turn should be distinguished fromfunctions(plural), that elements of the "Architecture has always been essentiallyan is, the specific programmed abstractart.. ." building,the roomsand spaces of the interior. Hitchcock2 Henry-Russell "courtroom." Simplybecause Le Corbusier's High Courtin Chandigarh, India,paradesall its courtroomson its front facade doesn't necessarily make this buildingany moreexpressiveof "courthouse" than the U.S. SupremeCourt,wherethe portico stands for the institution(and the chamber)as an architectural synecdoche. Howeverit is accomplished,the signalof activityfunction is assumedby architectsto be the preferred initial contemporary readingupon encounteringa building. These modernassumptions about what a courthouseor any other buildingshouldannounce to the casualobserverwere not alwaysthe norm. of the late eighteenth and Amongthe romantics nineteenth centuries,the idea that a building early be or English was far French, might Hungarian, more important than whetherit was a library, a town hall,or a mansion.Goethe,for example,glorified the "German-ness" of German architecture, arguing,
And now I should not be angry ... when the

Ask an architecture student today to accountfor some variationin the fenestrationof an otherwise repetitivefacade of even a Renaissance building, and the answerwill most likelybe that the architect was tryingto projectsome aspect of interior space onto the outside wall.The idea that interior-exterior should be the standardexpectation correspondences of facade appearanceis a widespread assumptionin architecture schools, and it is difficult contemporary to contest as the only normof architectural expression. In muchof the architecture of the Modern were tacitly movement,two important assumptions made about the inside and the outside. One was that a building'ssocial program ought to be read on the outside of the building, quite literally withoutthe aid of inscription. The other assumption was that the interior spaces and volumesought to be readas well. These ideas are interconnected and often become conflatedin practice.Function, taken here to meanthe institutional identification or social

The Importance of the Program

The exteriorof a courthousemaytelegrapha numberof differentmessages, rangingfromthe idea that the buildingis a courthouseand not a post office, to the indicationof an important to the fact that the buildingis a public chamber, of the buildingin its institution,to the importance and so forth. The means by whichand community, the degree to whicheach of these attributescan be articulated from placeto place and varyenormously time to time. Courthouse may be plainlyindicated an over the door, a sign out front, or by inscription the Corinthian flashed behinda TV newsby portico casterto indicatethe UnitedStates SupremeCourt. An important courtroommay be placedon the facade as a volumeor it may be displayedvia enlargedwindowsor even via a blankwindowless wall.The same Corinthian porticowe see behind the newsreader denote the existence of the may chamber. That is, if the porticosuccessfully then it must also project projects"courthouse"

German art scholar,upon the hearsayof jealous neighbors,does not appreciatehis belittlesyourworkwith the misunsuperiority, derstoodword"Gothic," when he should thank Godto be able to proclaim aloud that that is German our architecture, when Architecture, the Italiancan boast of none of his own, much less the Frenchman.3

23

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Inc. pp. 23-33 ? 2002 ACSA,

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SirJohn Summerson claimedthat interestin was common denominator of the single program withinthe Modernmovetheoreticalassumptions In a seminalarticlein the RIBA ment in architecture. Journalin the late 1950s, he summarized that, is in the "the sourceof unity in ModernArchitecture social sphere, in other wordsin the architect's Summerson furtherargued, program."4

of the early teristicof the progressive architecture twentieth centurythat it was conceivedin termsof a separateand defined volumefor each separate and defined function,and composedin such a way that this separationand definitionwas made plain."6 RobertVenturi has also arguedthat, in much of twentieth-century funcarchitecture, "program tions are exaggeratedly articulated into wings or The gradualsubstisegregatedseparatepavilions."7 tution of such programmatic Fromthe antique(a worldof form)to the expressionfor tectonic has determinants of social local (a expression many duringthis pattern); fragment program of one them the architect's this suggests a swing in the architect's being gradual psycho- period, fromthe engineerand the artist, estrangement logicalorientationalmosttoo violent to be credible.Yet in theory at least, it has come startingin the middleof the eighteenthcentury." removedfromthe technicalexpertiseof about;and how it has come about could very Partially the engineerand the aestheticismof the painter Firstthe well be demonstrated historically. architect and sculptor, the late-eighteenth-century rationalist attackon the authorityof the of the classical was drawntowardthe social sciences,to the idea antique;then the displacement that architecture could be the independentvariable then the introducantiqueby the mediaeval; tion into mediaevalist authorityof purelysocial upon which behaviordepended. Mythsabout the then the evaluationof purely originsof architecture factors (Ruskin); began to change. Architecbecause of their social ture was now seen as emanatingfroma social, not vernacular architectures source. and finallythe concentration a constructive, realism (Morris); of the We can see the increasing of intereston the socialfactorsthemselvesand importance in of two decisive social realm a as the conceptionof the architect's cursorycomparison program theorists:Marc-Antoine the sourceof unity- the source not precisely Laugier, writingin 1753,9 and GottfriedSemper,writingone hundred of formsof of forms but of adumbrations years conceivedan almostwholly as the source later.10 The program undeniable Laugier validity. constructiverationale for the originsof architecture. of unity is, so far as I can see, the one new need for shelter He assumedthat the programmatic involvedin modernarchitecture.5 principle was important, but generalized.Forhim,the manipelementsto makethat ulationof the primary that seeks to The routeto an architecture the column and the architravewas shelter-that function(and interior is, volume) expressprogram is the initialact of man behavinglike an architect. a slow one throughoutthe nineteenthcentury, in such canonicalInternational Semperwrote his treatiseafter the intervention Style culminating of seminalsocial ideas of the Enlightenment in the Dessau. Bauhaus as Reyner buildings Gropius's to architecture and their application Banhamcharacterized by Ledoux, buildingslike the Bauhausas Fourier, Bentham,and others. Semperwas also typicalof the design processthat was commonto most avant-gardearchitectsin the 1920s. Banham stronglyinfluencedby the workof biologistGeorges "wasto shift whose scientificinnovation to the tracedthe originsof this idea specifically Cuvier, the identifiable from the academician influence of description emphasis by great unacknowledged membersof an organism, and classification theorieson modernist JulienGuadet's architects, by to classification description, by the function peradding,that "it may be taken as a generalcharac-

formed.""This led to a classification of buildingsby criteria. social, not formalor constructive, Semper dividedarchitecture into four independentelements: the hearth,the platform, the roof (including the He verticalstructure), and the enclosure("infill"). wrote,
The first sign of human settlement .
. .

is

the today, as when the first men lost paradise, of the and the fireplace setting up lightingof the reviving, and warming, food-preparing flame. Around the hearththe firstgroups assembled;aroundit the first allianceformed; aroundit the first rudereligiousconcepts were all put into the customsof a cult. Throughout phases of society the hearthformedthat sacredfocus aroundwhichthe whole took orderand shape.12 The hearthis the first and most elementalof Semper'sforms. He continues,"it is the first and most important, the moralelement of architecture As Rosemarie Bletterexplained,"the [his italics]."" fire [is] an elementwithoutspatialdimensionbut one that bestows social significanceon the site."14 who Inthis regard,Semperwas followingVitruvius, averred,"the beginningof associationamong humanbeings,their meetingand livingtogether... came into being because of the discoveryof
fire."15

"roof,with its supporting Further, Semper's memberis readas a continuousunit,"6 thereby two of the most discreteelements amalgamating the of all previoussystems (includingLaugier's): He also made a clear columnand the architrave. and enclosure,arguingthat separationof structure were frame the earliestof humanhabitations with woven carpetsas verticalspatial constructions separators. "Onlythe potter'sart,"Semperargued, "canwith some justification perhapsclaimto be as ancientas the craftof carpetweaving[his italics]."17 wall Semperconceivedthe facade as, "a partition made with hands,the firstverticaldivisionof space

"TheOutsideIs the Resultof an Inside" 24

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reflectedin similar Wallas dividerprecedeswall as inventedby man."18 shape;differentfunctionsin differentshapes."21 supportin Semper'ssystem. Althoughthis is not to with structure say that Semperwas unconcerned the ideas limnedabove are a and construction, Abstractionand Volumetric of and encloto the structure separation precursor Expression and sure that becamethe plan libreof Le Corbusier The New Architecture has ... made "front" and Mies,whereinthe facade surfacewas not its own and "back," "right" "left,"and possibly and construcstructure. And, withoutthat structural also "above" and "below" equal in value. tive essence, walls could become, in the wordsof Theo van Doesburg22 Van Doesburg,"colourplanes [which]forman In other The programmatic organicpartof the new architecture."19 message that a buildingprojects to the outside worldis one issue. Anotherimportant words,for Van Doesburgand his generation,the issue is what the buildingprojectsof its internal planes are abstract. of of destruction one architecture's spaces. Along with program havingbeen conceived Semper's as an independentvariablein the design equation, conventions-that is, the most lastingstructural members so "space"and "volume" have been "liberated" cleardistinctionof verticalfrom horizontal structure construction. Thisindependence is on from and and an architrave) (column important step has changedthe way in whicharchitectsapproach his insistenceon the roadto abstraction.Further, the anthropological (so-calledfree plan),the making plan organization setting as the architectural of rooms that architects could determinant indicates (so-called free-flowingspace), the expresprime as a sion of purpose(program functionversus national now see "program" alongside"structure" form and and regionaltraits),and the design of the exterior significantgeneratorof architectural surface(so-calledfree-facade). surface. In the 1920s, with the advent of the InternaDirectives the connectionof activity regarding at least tional Style, the abstractwhite stucco and glass and facade appearin the literature program as earlyas the beginningof the nineteenthcentury. facade emerged,profoundly influencedby modern Etlinhas uncoveredhow, according to the tracedthe influenceof Richard painting.Peter Collins on the architectsof the FrenchConseildes BatimentsCivil(1805), "each paintingand abstraction He to on its exterior the chartwentieth had announce early century. arguedthat Gropius's building I its students at acter [corresponding have the function."20 to] Bauhaus,"wereinitiatedinto the Ruskin of added Semperto Summerson's of architecture abstract example study by manipulating as the agent of the "socialprogram" without reference to determinant, shapes any buildingfunctions or the ultimatestrengthof materials, which by the earlytwentieth centurywas to begin but solely with to have a profoundeffect on architects'attitudes a view to achievingornamental appeal in termsof about form making. Thisabstraction 'significantform.""23 appearedin That such ideas have been codified into the the architecture of Adolf Loos around1910, and of late-twentieth-century literature was then furtherdeveloped by Le Corbusier, the theory is attested by RudolfArnheim's the Dutch,and the Russiansin the 1910s argumentin his influ- Bauhaus, ential book, The Dynamics of Architectural Form: and 1920s. Writing WarII,Nikolas just afterWorld to which all this comes down "Thesimpleprinciple Pevsnerobservedthe new abstraction in Gropius is that in a well-designedbuildingthere is a strucand Meyer'sFaguswerke and the Werkbund factory turalcorrespondence between visualproperties and both builtjust beforeWorld WarI: Administration, functionalcharacteristics. Similar functionshould be "No moldings,no frills,were permitted to distract

one's attentionfromtrue architectural values:the relationsof wallto window,solid to void, volumeto space, blockto block."24 This premium on abstraction, confirmedby Hitchcock's statementthat coversthis essay, was wedded to the idea that the insideshould be and Philip projectedto the outside. H.R.Hitchcock this shift in expressivepossibiliJohnson portrayed ties as the differencebetween the expressionof mass and the expressionof volume.25 Le Corbusier's "soap bubble"metaphorgave architectsthe paradigm. Since the 1920s, many avant-gardearchitectshave taken this prescription ratherliterally, and they could assumeit to be operative for repetitiveas well as hierarchical buildings; a repetitivefacade must necessarily projecta repetitive interior, otherwise"somethingis being hidden." And, althoughan adherenceto the rigorsof constructionexigenciesand budgets often may conflictwith an equallyrigorous displayof internal volume or function(as when a neutralcurtain-wall facade of repetitivestructure coversa spatiallyhierarchicalinterior), some modernarchitectshave succeeded in expressingboth gradationand concatenation. LouisI. Kahn'sExeterLibrary is a building that, throughits massingand fenestration,reveals its importance withoutliterally telegraphingits great internalspace. The building'srigorousrepetitionof structural the traditional conventions bays preserves of masonryconstruction withoutresembling a banal office building. Architectsmaydisagreeon "which what"of the insideshould appearon the exteriorsurface, yet, among even the moderatesamong International few would have allowedthat the Style modernists, outside surfaceought to determineinterior distribution. It's one thing to not projectall the innards onto the outer wall;it's quite anotherfor the outside wallto dictate, or even precede,the interior. The PlaceVendomeand Haussmann's in boulevards Paris,wherethe facades were built beforethe buildings,are often the object of modernarchitects' indignationand disdain,as if it were patently

25

SCHUMACHER

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1. Peruzzi, Palazzo Massimo, 1525, planat upper floor(from

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obvious thatsuchan act is immoral andinauthentic, buildings the valueof "truth" exuding expounded the factthattheseprojects arebrilliant Inthe late1950s,LeCorbusier wrotean despite by Ruskin. urban introduction to a photoessayon the Cistercian gestures. Inmostpremodern the more of Le Thoronet in southern France. The architecture, Monastery the the less the facade related bookwasentitled The Architecture of Truth. important building, to the rooms it covered andthe more it related to Inaddition to a penchant for plain wallsand the spaceit faced,be it streetorsquare, whether or the use of the samematerial on the inside as on the notthe facades werebuilt first.Giulio Carlo allthe waythrough), Argan outside(andpresumably many maintained thatin the Renaissance, as in antiquity, modern architects havecometo appreciate those the mostimportant andgrandest facades where the interior volume relates displayed historical examples an architectural formthat,"was notthatof the to the outside the spacesare wall,where solidvolume whosefacades ontothe facade. Venetian have [the]internal "projected" suggested palaces buta cubicvoidwhosefacades arethe often beenfavorite for of structure, examples professors walls."26 the greater the number design. Thisfacade Further, enclosing typeseemsto so perfectly of equal(andlarge) windows a Renaissance client mirror the parti, withits central the portego, room, couldafford for hispalazzo, the happier he was. facedwithan openloggia.Butit is unlikely typically to quattrocento andcinquecento clients that projecting the planand sectiononto the Irregularity, its origins), the unkempt facadewas an important intention of the patrons (whatever symbolized of the Middle or architects of the late Middle squalor Ages. Ages,the Renaiswhenobserving architecture of the If anything, Further, sance,or the baroque. manyof those modernist" Venturi's facadesillustrate the struggle to suppress sucha (Robert past,the "orthodox in discovering takesgreatdelight insideterm) reading.27 outsiderelationships thatappear to prevision Therepetition of similar in baysis common modernism. Vernacular ancient ruins andPost-Renaissance ancient, Renaissance, buildings, public of theirrevetments, anddoggedly Someof thosebuildings arein factdeep, stripped plain buildings. likeCistercian areoftencitedas andsomearealsorelatively structures, buildings abbeys porch-like

nonhierarchical in terms of the spacesbehind, not unlike a modern officebuilding. Butrepetitive facades alsoshowup in buildings whoseinternal hierarchies aremorepronounced. The spatial Farnese andMassimo in Rome (sixteenth palaces arebuildings whosefacades rather century) deftly hidewhata modern as spatial interprets sensibility between internal voidandthe exterior discrepancies wall.Thefacadeof the Palazzo Farnese veilsthe double-volume left of grand Saloneat the upper the facade.ForhisPalazzo Baldassare Massimo, Peruzzi hadto choosebetween the grand centering room on the facadeor on the courtyard; the two do notlineup.Heoptedforthe courtyard 1), (Figure a relationship thatwasmoreimmediate because it was made viathe promenade of the perceptible on the first Also,someof the windows building. atticfloorlightandventilate the upper reaches of the grand rooms salone,whileotherslightsmaller above.Architects andarchitecture students who the of this are the study drawings masterpiece only whoareeveraware of anyinconsistency of persons internal-external alignment. Theyarealsothe only oneswhocare. Inthesetwo palaces, the tension between the inside andthe outsideposesa dilemma forthe
"The Outside Isthe Result of an Inside" 26

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situawith a similar modernistarchitect.Confronted functional tion derivingfrom contemporary the modernist would most often allow distribution, the insideto determinethe outside. do not originate Such aesthetic predilections with the International Style, however.NineteenthcenturyEnglisharchitectsand theorists began to volumeshould make promotethe idea that interior its way out to the facade and the massingof a building.GeorgeHerseysketchedthis development in his book, High Victorian Gothic,coiningthe Functional to Automatic Picturesque phrase, describethe theory of E.B.Lamb,who argued,"by and the situationand their size and importance, decorationof the windowsand doors, the principal roomswill sufficientlyindicatetheir uses."28 Hersey the workof furtherexpandedthe idea by examining William on funcWhite,noting White's,"emphasis tional expressionthroughvolumes ratherthan But perhapsHersey'smost telling facade details."29 exampleis that of G.E.Street, the famousVictorian architectand theorist. Herseyquotes Street in this regardtwice, first in a diatribeagainsta particular buildingin Oxford,where, "fromthe exteriorit is difficultif not impossibleto obtain an idea of what the interiorarrangement is, or what may be the of Laterin his career,in his the building."30 object lectures of 1881, Street amplified RoyalAcademy of the exterior this sentiment:"Theconstruction of should, as far as possible,show the arrangement the interior, and you ought at once to knowsomething about the positionsof the floors,the shape of the roofs, and the sizes and uses of the principal the exteriorof the rooms,merelyby examining building."31 Comingfrom a GothicRevivalarchitect,this sentimentsounds almost anachronistic to the as it observer, twenty-first-century very closely resemblesthe instruction given architecture students by teacherssteeped in the theories of Bauhausand Le Corbusier. However, although academicdesign studios often follow contemporary such prescriptions, few modernistmasterswrote

about it. Van Doesburgseemed to have parrotedLe dictumverbatimin his lectures:"The Corbusier's interior ought to determinethe shape of the extehimselfsent out conflicting Le Corbusier rior."32 he first a New Architecture, signals. In Towards states that "massand surfaceare determinedby the Laterhe argues plan.The plan is the generator."33 that "a mass is enveloped in its surface,a surface which is dividedup according to the directingand lines and this gives the of the mass; generating mass its individuality."34 and space have yet anotherdimension Program in relationto facade design, and a comparison between two projectsby Le Corbusier mayserve to of program as furtherelucidatethe relationship interior volumeto the exteriorsurface.Inthe Ozenfant Studio of 1923, the street facades displaythe The studio at the top internalspaces fairlyexplicitly. of the house is coveredby a huge windowwall, and smaller-scaled ribbonwindowscoverthe rooms below. Le Corbusier couldjustify his giant window as required to properly light a paintingstudio, but the spatialexpressionis also purposeful. On both the front and rearfacades of Le Corbusier's VillaStein at Garches, no such teleof internal volume occurs. The ribbon graphing windowsthat spreadout acrossthe front of the piano nobile are the same as those of the less importantbedroomfloor above;the kitchenon the left receivesthe same windowtreatmentas the in the center and the stairhall on the right. library The double height of the entry hall is unexpressed. The facade of the VillaStein at Garchesis unmistakablytelling us somethingvery differentabout its internalcontents fromthe OzenfantStudio;it refers back,via its facade parti if not its style, to the traditionof the piano nobile houses of the Italian Renaissance and the Frenchbaroque.ColinRowe and RobertSlutzky,in their seminalessay, "Transand Phenomenal," commentedon parency,Literal this conditionat the VillaStein at Garches. the space behindthe rearfacade (a Describing conditionsimilar to that in the front), they write,

"on first examination this space appearsto be an of the facade; particularly almostflat contradiction on the principal floor,the volume revealedis almost directlyopposite to that whichwe mighthave anticipated.Thus the glazingof the gardenfacade might have suggested the presenceof a single largeroom behindit."35 as it Of course,it is the "secondexamination," were, that led Roweand Slutzkyto their conclusions. "First examination" is what criticswould have seen in the 1950s (when the articlewas written)that is, an interiorprojectedonto the facade. In other words, Roweand Slutzkywere tacitlycriticizingthe assumptionconcerninginside-outside relationships. By contrast,the architectsof the seventeenth - likePeruzzibefore and earlyeighteenth centuries them- did not see fit to expresswhat they would have consideredthe banalitiesof individual rooms on the exteriorsof their buildings.Rather, they resolveda regularized repetitiveexteriorto an interiorof great variations in roomsize, scale, and social life, both aristoproportion.Post-Renaissance craticand bourgeois,was ever so muchmore and room complexthan that of the Renaissance, and functions to in sizes, shapes, began proliferate the seventeenth century.36 the end of seventhe By teenth century,the arrangement of space for in specific uses (the art of distribution increasingly French)was beginningto catch up with composition as a primary activityin the architectural design We see this processin the theoriesand process.37 practiceof J.F.Blondel,an architectat the forefront of the developmentof moderndistribution and hierarchyin the plan.To Blondel(see Figure2), the facade did not expressthis hierarchy directlyor but rather volumetrically, throughscale and reguEtlinhas explained, larity.As Richard Blondelhad to manipulate two distinctsystems of organization which had to be coordinated together at the same time that each satisfied differentand sometimesopposing

27

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2. J.F.Blondel, House,1737-1738, project, planandelevation Country "LesDedans"). (fromEtlin,

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or at leastexteriors notgenerated the "heroic of the Modern exteriors, regular period" During interior with interiors. For movement it wasthe (1920-1940),however, by arrangement, irregular there no was academic who writers substance to these however, picturesque buildings, gave to be resolved the same ideas; because the directive the academic saturates treatises perceived problem thatsavored romanticism of a of the early twentieth bookswritten to picturesque images century, Theresults of Blondel's are classical medieval neomedieval andNeo-Renaissance designprocess pastalsoappreciated asymmetry promote styles anathema to a modernist Forinstance, inwhich andhaphazardness, a combination of andmethods, not modernism. sensibility. the factthatthe same-size windows oftenlightand rooms of wildly different contour couldeasilybe Howard Robertson histheory of explained ventilate bothclosetsandpublic rooms is obviously accommodated. the picturesque tradi- inside-outside in The of But,although relationships Principles a condition thata twentieth-century functionalist tion madeit easier forindividual rooms to assert Architectural (1924): Composition wouldnot countenance. thatthe various thisdidnot mean themselves, of room andprogram Asthe variety andprotuberances Theportion of the elevation types bulges, wings,pavilions, regularly corresponding inthe eighteenth andnineteenth to the specific Somewithsomeprincipal element of the planwillbe proliferated corresponded spacesbehind. somearchitects timestheydid,andsometimes in treatment richer andin general centuries, soughtto reconcile theydidnot. appropriately
"The Outside Isthe Result of an Inside" 28

demands.... Thedifficulty in resided a facade with combining regularly spaced allthe samesizewithcorrectly windows rooms of different dimensions.38 proportioned

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accentuation.Moresimplyand monotonously with internal treated portionswill correspond and connectinglinksof the plan, and corridors minoremphasiswill convey the presenceof secondary,but neverthelessimportant,plan elements.39 Curtis Twoyears later,NathanielCortlandt maintained that "the plan determinesmanyof the elements essentialto the compositionwhichcannot be fixed by the elevationsor facades, and to which the lattermust conform."40 Arthur Otherexamplesproliferate. Stratton,in Architecture Elementsof Form& Design in Classic (1925) had a similar opinion:"Inall good design the and featuressuborplan finds expressionexternally, dinateto the generaloutline of a buildingare in directrelationto the plan."41As practical applications withinneoclassicand Neo-Gothicpractice, feature of planhowever,the most important concernedthe massingof elevationcorrespondence dominantand subordinate elements,whichwere spaces. The almost only remotelyrelatedto interior of majorroomsroughlycorreaxiomaticcentrality of the sponded to the almostaxiomaticcentrality elevationsand masses. Some of the academictheoristsof the early balance twentieth centuryexhibitedremarkable of the interiorand the the relationship regarding that only certainaspects of inteexterior.Realizing riororganization would necessarily and structure makethemselvesfelt on the facade, Robertson made a case for accommodation (but hardlya compromise): [S]incewe are dealingwith solids, the internal forms, of whichthe elevationsare merelythe envelope, are boundto find some expression An analogyis that between the on the exterior. of the body and its internalstructure covering and organs,which,while not expressedin detail on the exterior,dictate neverthelessthe generalcontoursof the humanform.42

Robertsonhad a caveat, however.He held that too close an inside-outsidecorrespondence might of wreckan otherwisegood facade:"Expression in be carried to absurd elevation plan lengths. may It is a commonfailing,for instance,to stress unduly the height of a hallwhich is an importantplan element, in orderto makeits locationmore of evident.... The mere presenceof importance bulkand positioncannot alwaysbe directlyindicated in facade."43 - two A.E. Richardson and HectorCorfiato ratherlate apologistsfor classicalarchitecture (1940s) - contended,"as externalstatementsof alone are insufficient to interiorarrangements provideaesthetic effects, it is obviousthat other aids are required."44 By the mid-twentiethcentury,the idea that the internalspaces of buildingsought to provide - and that any varithe normof externalexpression and ation fromthis normis understandable justifiableonly as an ironicdeviationfromthe norm- was tacitlyaccepted by modernarchitects.45 The pervasiveness of the doctrineis apparentin the text of the early argumentset forth in a polemical 1980s: The DecoratedDiagram,by KlausHerdeg.46 for not followersat Harvard Herdegfaults Gropius's followingthe Bauhausprinciples closely enough and of Le Corbuintroduceshis case with a comparison sier's Errazuris House in Chile(1930) (Figure3) and MarcelBreuer's "Exhibition House"at the Museum of ModernArt, New York, of 1949 (Figure4). house and criticizes HerdegpraisesLe Corbusier's is that, and his primary Breuer's, gambitof criticism roofs,the although both houses have "butterfly" roof coveringLe Corbusier's house displaysa tighter to the interior relationship spaces than does Breuer's. "Inthe Errazuris house ... the V-shaped roof interlocks with and thus enhancesthe meaning of severalother aspects of the house."47 In contrast, the valleyof the butterflyroof in Breuer's house, "insteadof being placedin a spatiallyand
symbolically meaningful position ... happens to

He like "directconflict"and "discrepancy."49 continues: Inthe bulletinwhichthe museumpublishedon the occasionof the house's exhibitionwe are told that the double-storypackageof the is design to apartment" garage and "parents'
be added at a later stage .... Yet however

plausiblethis design decisionmay be froma and practical viewpoint,it diagrammatic when the form of becomes utterlyimplausible the volumeof the house is considered.Surely one would expect an additionto be joined where the two roof slopes meet, rather than made into an arbitrary extensionof one of the other of the butterflywings. AlthoughHerdegis not describing specifically a facade issue, the inside-outsidecorrespondence is likethe MOMA Exhibithere, nonetheless.Buildings tion House, Herdegavers,"devaluewhat were the standardsof architecture."50 once rigorous Herdeg finishes off his argumentwith anotherexamplefrom Le Corbusier: the Besnos House,Vaucresson (1922). Here,Herdegexplainsawaythe lackof correspondence between space and facade by explaining that Le Corbusier was being ironic: "[the] outside having little correspondence with what lies behindit in total oppositionto the modernmovementbelief that the exteriorof a buildingshould reflectits interior."51 to Again, HerdegcomparesLe Corbusier more-recentarchitects, this time UlrichFranzen and PhilipJohnson, concludingthat their "false-fronts" on FifthAvenuein New York are to be abjured because they lackthe sophisticatedironydisplayed at Vaucresson.52

Space, Independent of Matter

As American architectural educationevolvedfrom Ecoledes Beaux-Arts style to "Bauhaus" style, it retainedmorethanjust the French teachingvocabulary.The traditional concept of inside-outside finds its latter-dayparadigm in the correspondence student of the Bauhaus-inspired projects post-

coincidewith the wall between the bathroomand Herdegpresseshis case with words utilityroom."48

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Errazuris Oeuvre 3. LeCorbusier, 7929-34). house,Chile, 1930, section(LeCorbusier, compl&te, MoMa TheDecoroted 4. Marcel Breuer, House,1949, NewYork (fromHerdeg, Diagram).

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World WarIIera. These highlyabstractprojectsare to as the "explodedcube."The sometimesreferred exploded cube projectis composed of consistently structured elements, eitherwith a limitedenvelope or as a picturesque assembly,like drawersbeing pushed and pulledin and out on the x, y, and z axes of a kindof all-sideddresser.Students in schools of architecture acrossthe U.S. were given exploded-cubeprojectsin elementarydesign studio courses. One of the rulesof the game was to maintain volumetric between inside and correspondence outside; no volumecould be added or removed,a kindof "conservation of space." Onlywhen "space"could be distinguished by modernarchitectsas independentof structurecould the explodedcube have been developed. "Space," in the general(singular) sense as a positive,independent, and abstractessence is the final aspect of this argument.Architects are often calledmoldersof but the term space, space was not alwaysan essential wordfor architects.Peter Collinssuggested that "space,"beforethe turn of the twentieth century, was itself an idea subsumedwithinstructure: Whereas the Rationalists, such as Violet-leDuc, could conceive only of the structureof the archetypefor a new churchesas providing took the space, and it way of building,Wright is this that distinguishes fromthe other Wright
great architects of his generation .... Hence-

an interestin abstract recentcriticshave interpreted space to architectsgoing backto the Renaissance.55 Formodernarchitectscommittedto the functionand volume, space expressionof program could now operate in the serviceof that function and seep to the outside of the building.Premodern facade hierarchy had derivedfrom ideas of permaand nence, the demandsof masonry construction, the spanningof great distances.Longspans meant thick walls, buttresses,or side aisles. The exterior surfacesof masonrybuildings, when they registered of the internal the anything organization, registered struggleto createthe clearspan. Withthe advent of the new materials and structural techniquesall this changed. It was now possibleto span virtually any distancewith a flat ceiling and enclose the volumewith thin membranes. No longerdid the articulated pieces of constructionhave to interveneto give concrete formto the expressiveintent;construction could be abstracted.

verticalsupporton the exterior. The free facade, moreinchoateand abstract,mightseem to imply some other expressiveintent. But Le Corbusier describedboth elements in precisely the same mannerin the OeuvreComplete: "Thewindowscan ... runfrom edge to edge."56 ForLe Corbusier, the plasticityof the facade is a moregeneraladumbration of the idea of the frame. BrunoZevi insistedon a literalfreedomfor the free facade and asked architects to abjureany facade regularity (see Figure5): Thereis no reasonwhy everywindowin a buildingshould be just likethe next one and not have a character of its own. Once you get ridof the tyrannyof classicism, windowswill be all the moreeffective if they are different and can convey a host of messages. Classicism breaksthe facade into verticaland horizontal sections. But eliminating the juxtaposition and of modules will make the superimposition facade whole again.57 Zevi made no pretenseof a functionalist argument. His interestin havingall the windows differentwas not that they mightlight and ventilate each roomperfectly,but that they mayconvey some message about the natureof modernism as to classicism.Hiswindowsare all different compared preciselybecausethey couldn'tbe all differentin a classicalbuilding.That so manyarchitectshave taken Le Corbusier's is perhapsa metaphorliterally testamentto the seductivenessof the insideoutside continuum,and the seductivenessof Van Doesburg'sabstraction.It is a highlyparticularized versionof the idea that architecyet omnipresent ture should be likethe humanbody, as offered by a recent magazinead for a high-fibercereal:"Ifyou take care of the inside,the insidetakes care of the outside."

Conclusion
Whereas for Roweand Slutzky,and laterHerdeg,Le Corbusier the dissentingattitude represents to most concerninginside-outsidecorrelations, modernists he is responsible for havingcreatedthe commonwisdomthat the normof facade expression should be internal volume. Perhaps that is because he was one of the few architects to writeabout it. his distinctionbetweenfree facade and Moreover, ribbonwindow(two of his five pointsfor the "new would seem to supportthis interprearchitecture") tation. Both of these elements are made possibleby the separationof structureand enclosure,itself made possibleby the reinforced concreteor steel frame,and both inventionsopenly indicatethe existence of the framebehind,whateversurfaceis hung on it. The ribbonwindowannouncesthe existence of the structural frameby the visibleabsence of

as the twin partner forth, space was regarded with structurein the creationof architectural
composition.53

that to himspace was someWrightconfirmed thing independent; writingmanyyears later,he arguedfor "the essentialof the architectural change from box to free plan and the new realitythat is space insteadof matter."54So strong is the modern notion of the independenceof "space"that some

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of Modern studies(fromTheLanguage Architecture). 5. Bruno Zevi,facadeandwindow

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Notes Towards a NewArchitecture TheArchitectural 1. LeCorbusier, (London: Press,1927), p. 167. 2. H.R.Hitchcock, Towards Architecture (NewYork: Duell, Painting Sloanand Pearce, 1948), p. 11. fromGoethe's Werke 3. J.W.Goethe,"OfGerman Architecture," 1896, 1 Abth.,xxxvii), (Weimar, pp. 127 ff. "ACaseforthe Theory 4. JohnSummerson, of Modern Architecture," RIBA Journal (June1957):309. 5. Ibid. 6. R. Banham, and Designin the First Machine Theory Age (NewYork: 1960), p. 20. Praeger, 7. R.Venturi, and Contradiction in Architecture (NewYork: Complexity of Modern TheMuseum Art,1966), p. 31. in Modem 8. See P.Collins, Ideals Architecture (Montreal: Changing Press,1978). McGill-Queens University 9. Marc-Antoine An Essayon Architecture trans., [1753] (Los Laugier, and Ingalls, 1977). Angeles: Hennessey 10. G.Semper, DerStilin den technischen undtektonischen Kunsten furKunst on Wissenschaft, (Frankfurt: 1860). Verlag of Style," in D. 11. JosephRykwert, "Gottfried andthe Problem Semper of Onthe Methodology ed.,Architectural Porphyrios, DesignProfile: Architectural Architectural (London: History Design,1981), p. 12. 12. G.Semper, of Architecture TheFour Elements (Cambridge: Press,1989), p. 102. University Cambridge 13. Ibid. 14. Rosemarie "Gottfried Bletter, Semper," entryin the MacMillan Encyof Architects, vol. 4 (NewYork: MacMillan, 1982), p. 27. clopedia in I. Rowland 15. Vitruvius, andTN. Howe, TenBookson Architecture, eds. (Cambridge: Press,1999), p. 34. Cambridge University 16. Ibid. of Architecture, 17. G.Semper, TheFour Elements p. 103. 18. G. Semper, Stilin den technischen undtektonischen Kunsten "Der in J. oderpradtische vol. 1, p. 7, quotedandtranslated Aesthetik," OnAdam's Housein Paradise, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: The Rykwert, MIT Press,1981), p. 30. 19. TheoVanDoesburg, a Plastic in de Stijl,VI, "Towards Architecture," in H.L.C. 6/7, 78-83, reprinted Jaffe,de Stijl(NewYork: Abrams, 1971), p. 189.

20. R. Etlin, of Chicago Press, Space(Chicago: University Symbolic 1994), p. 49. of Architectural 21. R.Arnheim, TheDynamics Form Univer(Berkeley: Press,1977), p. 204. sity of California 22. VanDoesburg, a Plastic "Towards Architecture," reprint, p. 187. 23. P.Collins, Idealsin Modern Architecture, p. 274. Changing 24. Nikolaus of European Outline Architecture (London: Pevsner, Pelikan, 1958), p. 285. 25. H.R.Hitchcock and P.Johnson, TheInternational Style(NewYork: Norton), pp.40-49. 26. G.C. TheRenaissance (NewYork: Braziller, 1969), p. 30. Argan, City 27. See T Schumacher, "Palladio TheCornell of Journal Variations," Architecture, (1987):pp. 12-29. See, also,C. RoweandR.Slutzky, III Literal and Phenomenal," 8 (1958):45-54. "Transparency, Perspecta 28. George Gothic JohnsHopkins (Baltimore: Hersey, HighVictorian Press,1972), p. 38. University 29. Ibid,p. 40. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid., p. 43. 32. VanDoesburg, Will "The to Style: The Reconstruction of Life,Art, andTechnology" of a lecture and Berlin), (Text givenat Jena,Weimar, in H.L.C. Jaffe,de Stijl(NewYork: Abrams, 1970), p. 160. reprinted 33. LeCorbusier, a NewArchitecture, Towards p. 28. 34. Ibid., p. 36. 35. RoweandSlutzky, Literal and Phenomenal." "Transparency, 36. See Patricia Seventeenth Useand Roman Palaces: Waddy, Century the Artof the Plan(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press,1990). 37. See Michael Court and Garden MA: The MIT Dennis, (Cambridge, Press,1986). "LesDedans: J.F Blondel andthe System of the 38. Richard Etlin, Gazette des Beaux Arts(April, Home," 1978):140. ThePrinciples of Architectural 39. Howard Robertson, Composition TheArchitectural (London: Press,1924), p. 133. 40. N.C.Curtis, Architectural J.H.Jansen, (Cleveland: Composition 1926), p. 117. 41. A. Stratton, of Form andDesignin Classic Elements Architecture StudioEditions, (London: 1925), p. 129. 42. Robertson, of Architectural ThePrinciples Composition, p. 127. This is the samepublisher andthe sameyearof the publication in English of LeCorbusier's Towards a NewArchitecture.

43. Ibid,pp. 137-138. 44. A.E.Richardson andH.O.Corfiato, Architecture, Designin Civil vol. 7, Elevational Treatments TheEnglish Universities (London: Press, 1948), p. 18. 45. Inthe early1980s, Beaux-Arts-trained architect JeanPaulCarlhian disdain forthe U.S.Supreme Court because the expressed building courtroom wasn'tdisplayed on the exterior. He proposed a new building one. (Conversations withthe author andotherparticipants of a Charrettefor Urban National Museum, Designin Washington, Building 1981.) 46. Klaus TheDecorated Harvard Architecture and Herdeg, Diagram: the Failure of the Bauhaus MA: TheMIT Press, Legacy (Cambridge, 1983). 47. Ibid., p. 6. 48. Ibid., p. 10. 49. Ibid., I am p. 11. Surely, onlyone schooledin the precepts herewouldsee thisas a problem. describing 50. Ibid.,p. 12. 51. Ibid.,p. 18. 52. Ibid., pp. 20-24. 53. Collins, Idealsin Modem Architecture, Changing p. 71. 54. Wright, "Destruction of the Box," froman address to the Junior of the American Institute of Architects, in E. 1952, reprinted Chapter Kaufman and B. Raeburn, Frank and Buildings Lloyd Writings Wright: NewAmerican 1960), p. 285. (NewYork: Library, 55. Arnaldo in his assessment of Bramante, claimed forthe Bruschi, Renaissance architect the capacity to conceive of "spacein itself,in the a three-dimensional of its shapeof a voidthoughtof as having quality own:emptiness not conditioned around it, but by the shapeof the walls on the contrary, them" Thames London: (Bruschi, Bramante, conditioning andHudson, to saywhether thisis an instance 1973),p. 74. Itis difficult of a modern critic a quality to a long-dead anachronistically ascribing or a case of an architect, who invented architect, Bramenti, something neither he norhiscontemporaries wereableto put intowords. 56. LeCorbusier, Oeuvre 1910-29 (Zurich: LesEditions Complete, d'Architecture, 1964), p. 128. 57. B. Zevi,TheModem of Architecture (Seattle: Language University Press,1978), p. 8. Washington

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